章 2: Chapter 2- What to do when Minato kicks you in the face
Kushina Uzumaki POV
"You're indeed pregnant brat." Tsunade-san announced as she laid on the medical bed, having come to the hospital in order to get a professional opinion. "Though the embryo is rather small. I'm surprised you managed to learn about your pregnancy so quickly."
Noting the question at the end of the Tsunade-san's words, she spoke up. "Ah… a friend of mine has Sharingan and she noticed a second Chakra System forming in my womb."
"Mikoto? Yeah, a mature Sharingan should definitely be capable of noticing such a thing." Tsunade-san said thoughtfully as she wrote down something on a notepad before she raised her head to look at her. "Your pregnancy is still at the very early stage so you don't need any medicine or the supplies to help with your pregnancy. Just don't smoke or drink. That can be harmful for the baby."
"I won't." She said, feeling very nervous about the entire thing. "When should I come here for another check up?"
"A month would do. Till then, eat healthy, don't be too angry or worried, and get your finances prepared for an extended leave from your work." Tsunade-san said before rubbing her head with a gentle smile. "And don't worry your pretty little head too much, I'll make sure that your baby is delivered without any problems."
She nodded to her aunt-in-all-but-name and after getting a few more pieces of advice, she finally left the hospital and slowly meandered back to her home, her thoughts filled with worry, nervousness and apprehension despite Tsunade-san's words to not be worried.
Would she make a good mother?
What if something went wrong during the pregnancy?
When should she tell Minato? He was still out there on a mission and the war had reached a critical state so won't telling him about this right now just distract him?
Oh kami! What if Minato doesn't like the fact that she's pregnant? What if he left her?
No, no, no. Minato is not that kind of person. She's sure that he'll take responsibility even if he doesn't like her being pregnant. But… she wanted him to like this. To share in her joy of having a child.
She should also get some some advice from her friends. Mikoto being the most obvious one since she already gave birth to a child and had another one on the way.
Her thoughts about Mikoto eventually spiralled until she remembered the strange little boy whom Mikoto had taken as her ward.
The boy had one-tomoe Sharingan despite only being 4 years old. (She hadn't even known that it was possible to active that dojutsu at such a young age). The boy who used an auditory genjutsu in order to speak. The boy who was the first to notice her pregnancy. And the same boy who asked her to be his Fuinjutsu master.
What should she do about that boy? She had nothing to do at home right now and she wasn't allowed to take any missions that'll have her leave the village. So she did have the time to teach him. Should she take him on as her student?
Her thoughts came to a halt as she realised that she'd finally reached her home.
A few hand signs allowed her to loosen the invisible Fuinjutsu barrier around her home and allowed her to enter through the front gate. And then she paused as her fledgling Chakra Sense allowed her to sense a certain someone inside her home.
A nervous but happy smile took over her face as she hastily entered her home and immediately ran toward the living room.
The sight of Minato sitting on her sofa and writing an after-mission report did much to soothe her heart.
And the sight of him giving her a thin, sad smile when he looked up at her, instead of his usual sunny and cheerful smile, made her realise that something must have gone wrong during the mission.
She immediately ran to his side and pulled him into a tight hug, crushing the air from his lungs.
"Welome home, Minato." She said as she buried his face into her bosom. They remained like that for a long moment before she finally took him at arms length and looked into her eyes. "How did the mission go?" She asked with concern and worry.
"The mission… was a success." Minato spoke up, his words slow and deliberate as he broke eye contact and looked down on the ground, his eyes filled with guilt. "But… Obito didn't make it. He gave his life in order to save his teammates."
With that, tears started to form in the corner of his eyes and she immediately pulled him in a hug once again as Minato shed tears for his disciple.
Obito… he had been a favourite of hers among Minato's students. He had a cheerful and sunny personality that she'd hoped that her own child would inherit someday. So his death was a blow to her as well.
But unlike Minato who was an orphan since birth and has only made a few important bonds, she was different and was much more experienced with the concept of losing someone.
She lost her mother to a shinobi conflict in the Uzu-Kiri border when she was just 5 years old.
She was forced to face the loss of her home when she was send to Konoha at the mere age of 7.
She lost Grandma Mito, whom she had become very close to when the Kyuubi was transferred into her. The fact that she lost her freedom when Kyuubi was inserted inside her was just an afterthought at that point.
And then she was forced to face the loss of the entire Uzumaki clan when the temporary alliance of Kumo-Iwa-Kiri attacked Uzushiogakure and killed every single person from her clan.
So while she still grieved for the death of Obito. She had long since accepted the fact that anyone and everyone close to her might die one day and then she could do nothing but pick herself up and carry on. That was the life of a kunoichi.
So being the more experienced one when it came to facing tragedies, she simply remained silent and acted as a support pillar for Minato as he grieved for Obito's death.
It took over two hours for Minato to finally come out of his grief at which point she sat on his lap and asked him about the rest of the mission, if only to distract him from the pain.
"Yes, the mission. It required me and my team to destroy the Kanabi bridge."
"Kanabi bridge? Issn't that the most important supply point for Iwa's forces in Kusagakure?" She asked.
"Yeah. It was also one of the most important trade route of Kusa so our Daimyo had to promise a fair amount of reparations to Kusa's Daimyo in order to get the permission to destroy it." Minato said with some exasperation. "But now that it's done, the war has swung heavily into our favour."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Hanzo has already sued for peace with Konoha. Suna has suffered enough losses that it won't try anything new at this point. And with this victory, Iwa should sue for peace soon enough."
"What about Kumo and Kiri?" She asked.
"Kiri does not have the numbers to oppose us. It joined the war mainly for profits than anything else. So once the other villages back out from this war, Kiri would undoubtedly do the same. And as for Kumo. They are trouble. But they have also lost a lot of men during the war as well as their 3rd Raikage. So I don't believe that they'll continue fighting once the other villages have backed off."
"That's a very good news."
"Indeed. Though please keep the details to yourself. The Hokage should make an announcement if Iwa sues for peace. But till then, all this is village secret."
"Oh… telling village secrets to another person like this. Are you committing treason, Minato?" She asked half teasingly and half seductively as Minato looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to himself. He stared deeply into her eyes and asked. "So what if I am?"
"Well, if we're sharing secrets and good news, then I have one for you as well." She said imperiously and Minato tilted his head.
"And what's this secret and good news?" He asked curiously.
She took one of his hands and put it over her womb. Some of her confidence from earlier fled but she managed to keep a happy smile on her face and beamed at him. "I'm pregnant Minato."
The last traces of tiredness and grief fled from Minato's face and his eyes lit up in joy and surprise.
The next moment, she found herself lifted in a bridle carry as Minato swung her around. "I'm going to be father!" He cheered out loud, his voice still holding a tinge of surprise and wonder.
"Yes, yes. Now put me down before I get dizzy." She softly chided him and Minato immediately put her down on the sofa, a giddy smile on his face that made him seem far younger than his age.
"How long till our child is born?" He asked as he put his ear into her belly and she giggled at his childish enthusiasm.
"8 months. The baby is still only a small embryo so don't expect to hear or feel anything anytime soon."
"8 months?" Minato asked. "That means that it's only been one month. How did you find out that quickly?"
"Well, since you asked." She said and quickly told him about her encounter with Mikoto in the market, and the strange child who immediately noticed her Fuinjutsu specialisation and then found out about her pregnancy.
"What a talented child." Minato said in the end, sounding surprised. "And he asked to be your student?"
"He asked to learn Fuinjutsu from me, yes." She said. "Do you think I should teach him?"
"I don't see any harm in doing so. Even more so since we're both friends with Fugaku-san and Mokoto-san."
"Isn't that like… nepotism. I don't think I feel comfortable with teaching a child just because he's the ward of our friends."
"Well, a little nepotism is only to be expected in our in of work. After all, any shinobi parent would only want the best for his or her child." Minato told her, giving a pointed look to her womb. "But if it's any consolation, then this child also appears to be extremely talented. Just accept him as your student based on that."
"You know very well that talent in other shionbi arts doesn't always translate to a talent in Fuinjutsu arts, Minato."
"Well then, give him a test or something. If he has talent in Fuinjutsu, then take him in as your student. And if he doesn't, then he'll probably lose interest in it himself."
"Well… when you put it like that, it does sound rather simple."
"It is simple. You're just making it complicated with over thinking." Minato said sagely and she stuck out her tongue at him as her own mature response.
They both broke into fits of chuckles at that and then looked at each other, now in a much better mood than before.
"So… when should I go and talk with the child. Should I just go and talk to him about it now, or should I wait?"
"I think we should just go and talk with the boy. No point in procrastinating." Minato said with a shrug before he paused and let out a sigh. "Just… just let me finish my after-mission report."
Her smiled dimmed out at that and she gave him a nod. "Yeah, go ahead and take your time with it. I'll prepare something for you to eat and then we can go and meet up with Fugaku-san and Mikoto."
—————
Fugaku Uchiha POV
"Are you alright?" He asked the boy who lay slumped on the ground, a painful grimace on his face thanks to the kunai buried halfway into his stomach.
"Yeah…" The boy's Genjutsu rang in his mind. And the fact that the boy was still able to use Genjutsu while still in this situation boggled his mind. "Just… let me…" *Shank!* The boy took out the kunai from his stomach.
If someone else had done that, then the Kunai would've been accompanied by a shower of blood. But thanks to Ren's bloodline, the kunai was clean with not a single drop of blood on it. And the wound in his stomach healed a second later, leaving absolutely no trace behind.
The boy stared at the kunai and took a few deep breaths before he threw it back at him.
"You want me to continue?" He asked but the unlike the last few times, the boy shook his head.
"My health is low." The boy said and sat down to meditate.
He still didn't completely understand how Tens bloodline worked. Just that if you do enough damage, then Ren's Health will go down and at that point he'll be in real danger of dying.
The pragmatic part of him was comforted by the thought that Ren was not immortal after all. Especially since this'll make it easy to capture him or put him down if he ever goes Rogue.
That same part of him was also terrified since it was becoming harder and harder to do any physical damage to Ren. And also became Ren's total Health was increasing as he grows older and becomes more powerful.
He could only hope that Ren won't follow the footsteps of their ancestor Madara, or Konoha would be in deep trouble this time.
5 minutes passed in relative silence as the boy meditated to regain his health. (Yes, he had no idea how this part of Ren's bloodline worked either.) Then Ren opened his eyes and stood up once again.
"I'm ready." Ren said and pressed his back against the tree, bracing for impact.
"Very well." He said as he took his kunai, covered it with Chakra to make it more lethal and them jammed it deep inside Ren's stomach.
Or he tried to, at least. But just like the last time, the Kunai only went halfway into Ren's stomach before coming to a stop.
'An attack like this would've shorn off a tree trunk in half. What a monsterous bloodline.' He thought as Ren flinched at the pain. It said something about Ren's pain tolerance that he didn't even let out a single noise from a pain that would've crippled anyone else.
A moment later, the boy adjusted to the pain, took out the kunai from his stomach and threw it back at him.
"Again." Ren's voice rang in his mind.
"Did your Physical Resistance not increase from that?" He asked and Ren shook his head.
"I'm not suffering enough damage." Ren said. "Do you have any other way to wound me more deeply?"
He hummed in thought and remembered that he could still use Susanoo but quickly removed that thought from his mind. If he started using his Mangekyo Sharingan like this, then he'll go blind in no time.
So he shook his head. "Taijutsu or Kenjutsu has never been my speciality. I'm more focused in Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. I can try the next time with my Tanto. But I'm not sure if it'll do more damage than kunai."
The boy looked thoughtful for a moment before he opened his arms wide and braced for another attack. "Then please continue with the Kunai, Fugaku-san. Once I'm no longer able to get any Physical Resistance, you can start with the Fire Release Ninjutsu and I can grind my Fire Resistance."
"Very well." He said and coated his kunai with a sharp layer of chakra before once again jamming it into Ren's stomach. And then he paused as another kunai immediately appeared on the tree trunk that Ren was bracing against.
He took a look at the three pronged kunai and paused. Wait! He recognised this… *Thud!*
He felt intense pain in his face as he was sent flying away from Ren's position.
His body rag dolled through half of the hidden training ground before he jammed his kunai into the ground to stop his momentum.
He looked up at Ren and noticed the boy being cradled by a worried looking Kushina while Minato stood protectively over the two of them, a confused but angry look in his face.
"Explain." Minato said in a voice that sent chills down his spine. "Now."
"This is... now how it looks." He said slowly as he raised his hands where Minato could see them. He knew that Minato was a very dangerous shinobi and he didn't want this situation to escalate as he was unsure of his victory, even with his Mangekyo Sharingan. "I'm just training the boy."
"Training the boy!!!" Kushina shouted from behind Minato, her hair rising up in anger as a terrifying amount of chakra flooded the training field. "By stabbing him!"
"Kushina-san." He said carefully. "As I said before, this is truly a misunderstanding. Please let me explain myself."
"Explain your-" Kushina growled and then paused as Ren put a comforting hand on her cheek before taking out the Kunai with his other. "Wait!" Kushina shouted, her eyes filled with horror at Ren's actions before her expression changed to confusion when no blood accompanied the kunai and Ren's wound healed instantly.
"Please calm down, Kushina-san, Yellow-haired-shinobi-san. Fugaku-san is not lying. This is indeed my training." Ren explained calmly.
Both Minato and Kushina stared at the boy's healed stomach for a moment before they both spoke at the same moment. "Kai!"
A burst of chakra accompanied that shout, disrupting any genjutsu they might have been under. But when the situation in front of them didn't change, they shouted "Kai!" again a few more times before they finally believed their eyes.
"What? How?" Kushina asked as she touched Ren's bare stomach, trying to see if the wound was truly healed. "Are you seeing this Minato?"
Minato nodded before he turned to face him once again, the earlier determination in his face replaced by even more confusion. "What is going on here, Fugaku-san?"
He let out a deep sigh as the crisis was finally averted.
"I'm afraid that this is an S-class secret of the Uchiha clan so I can't inform you of what you saw just now. So I can't-"
"It's alright." Ren spoke up, cutting him off. "You can tell them."
He blinked in surprise at that as Ren usually never cut him off while he's speaking. But then he shook his head. "This secret is very important for your safety, Ren-kun. If word about this got out then your life will be in a lot of danger. You can't just go around telling it to others."
"No." Ren said, surprising him once again as Ren usually never went against his words either. "It is safe to tell these two."
A frown formed on his face as he gave a deep look to Ren. "Are you sure?"
Ren nodded. "Yes. After all, yellow-haired-shinobi-san is going to be our Fourth Hokage."
"What?" "Huh!" "Really!?" The two shinobi and one kunoichi in the training field exclaimed at once and the troublesome boy simply nodded.
"Yes. I've seen it." Ren said and he frowned.
"What do you mean by that Ren-kun?" He asked. Knowing well enough that even though Minato had earned a lot of renown in this war, Orochimaru and Jiraiya had more of a chance of becoming the next Hokage.
"Just that. He'll be the next Hokage. So it's safe to tell him." Ren said with a confident nod and his frown deepened.
"Are you saying that you can see the future, Ren-kun?" He asked. His own Mangekyo ability allowed him to do get small glimpses of the future, but he had never expected that Ren's bloodline to give him a similar ability.
"That's impossible!" Kushina-san exclaimed before she looked up at Minato. "Isn't it, Minato?"
Minato however remained silent as he simply stared at the boy in Kushina's arms. Then he shook his head and said in a serious voice. "Anything is possible in the shinobi world, Kushina. I'm not sure if Ren-kun can really see the future. But if he's not against it, then I would like to hear why Fugaku-san stabbed you. And how it is that you healed instantly from such a lethal wound."
Ren paused and turned to look at him, as if asking for permission.
"Well… it's your secret at the end of the day, Ren-kun. If you trust them and feel safe in telling them your secret then feel free to do so. Though I would still advice against it. S-class secrets are not to be given away so freely." He warned the boy.
Ren thought on in for a moment before he nodded. "I don't mind telling them about my bloodline."
He let out a sigh. "Very well then."
And then Ren told Minato and Kushina about his new, secondary bloodline. He only told them the bare basics about it. And explained how he increased his Physical Resistance by getting Physical Damage. But it was enough for them to finally let down their guard.
"Well, now that Ren-kun has explained his circumstances. Mind explaining why you two are here?" He asked, rubbing the side of the jaw where Minato had kicked him.
Minato let out an embarrassed chuckle and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Well… the thing is…"
"I wanted to take Ren-kun as my Fuinjutsu disciple!" Kushina blurted out.
He stared at her for a moment, then he stared at Minato and then finally at Ren before he let out another heavy sigh.
"This seems like a talk that should be done over a cup of tea." He said and both Minato and Kushina immediately agreed to his invitation.
—————
AN: Tsunade is still in Konoha because of Universal Calibration.
Obito is 'dead'. And 3rd Shinobi war is finally about to end.
週次パワーステータス
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